Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Hello and thank you for reading the first ever blog from Big Screen Little Screen. I thought that it would be good to start on what I believe is one of the PS2's greats, 'Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy'. The platform game developed by Naughty Dog I must say, the game is brilliantly designed. Not only is the world very colourful but, we are tricked onto believing that there are no loading screens. I think some have under-rated this game, maybe even misjudged though it isn't exactly Crash Bandicoot all over again, you can most definitely see a resemblance in the comical shorts and the bounciness of the characters. I remember playing this game for hours on end when I was younger, finding all of the powercells and scout flies. There are certainly plenty of collectibles to keep you on your toes if the monsters aren't enough.

The game, like many great games was released in 2003 which is exactly a decade of technology ago. The content of this game was so good and advanced for it's time and it all worked so smoothly. In addition to this, the game was free roaming enabling you to do and go anywhere you pleased.

Sandover Village is the beautiful starting point, starting in The Green Sages Hut on the top of a small island that links into the village by a set of wooden bridges. This is when you meet the main characters I've always liked the beginning of the game (after the tutorial level, Geyser Rock) as it lets you look over the entire world in the near distance that you are about to embark on an adventure in.

For those that haven't played the game,  to the left is the windmill where you will find the mayor and to your right there are two huts that you can enter and discover the contents. Further into the village, if you take the left bridge you will reach the sculptors house and a path that leads to Sentinel Beach. If you take the right bridge you will reach the bird keepers hut and also the farmers. This way also leads to the Forbidden Jungle. Out of all of these areas, I would rate the Forbidden Jungle the most heart wrenching. Whether it be for getting bitten by snakes, knocked out by swinging logs or even being beaten up by a plant, some of these antics remind me of some of the tragic deaths similar to Crash Bandicoot. The Forbidden Jungle sure is the scariest of the easier areas that you are forced to venture to... (Those lazy villagers!).

Anyway, I will not bother tp list just about every area in the game so I can single them out for their own 'award' of some kind, no matter how much they may deserve it. Every area to it's own, they're all fantastic! As you expect with any game, the further you get the more difficult the challenges that lie ahead become. Though, my most feared areas were the Precursor Basin, Snowy Mountain and the Spider Cave. The sad truth is that these days I can complete the game almost by memory if you give me about three days, I would play a couple of hours per day even though it's easy to get hooked and play for hours on end (which has been done before). I'm not bragging, I'm merely setting a challenge.

I've always enjoyed the simplicity of Jak and Daxter. The game is focused and built around helping people in order to progress and aid your own journey, only to find (SPOLIERS) that it may have indeed been all for nothing. I highly recommend this game if you have not played it already. It is certainly one of the classics and has the makings of a true game. Lucily these days it's not just available on just the PS2. The whole trilogy has been remastered in HD for the PS3 and I can only make bets that it is an impovement. More recently, the trilogy has become available for the PS Vita, nicely putting it into our hands to play on the go!

Great game! I give it 10/10 and the full five star rating